Moonlight
by Sonata Appassionata
Summary: The three stages of their relationship: full moon, fogged moon and fractured moon. Thaluke. Inspired by the three movements of the Moonlight Sonata. Part Two is up: Thalia's perspective when she was a tree, right until the time she got poisoned.
1. Full Moon

**So I was listening to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and having a ton of feels and this story idea suddenly came to me. This is part 1, inspired by the first movement. I recommend listening to it when reading.**

**Please read and review! :)**

**Disclaimer: If I owned PJO, Luke would not have died.**

**xXx**

**1. Full Moon**

It was night.

Thalia drew her jacket tighter around herself as she sank down to lean against the thick trunk of an elm. She shivered, her hands buried in the warm depths of her pockets. Chilly breezes whispered through the darkened woods, teasing the exposed skin of her cheeks. Goosebumps rose on the sensitive skin. Thalia's teeth chattered.

Winter was approaching, its icy footsteps drawing ever closer with each passing day, ready to corner them and sweep them beneath its frosted ground and merciless winds. Thalia could see it in the rustle of falling leaves, in the shortening of day, and of course, the rapidly falling temperature. It had still been relatively warm a week or so ago. At least, she could still keep her fingers and toes safe from dangers of frostbite with the simplicity of wearing an extra shirt and zipping her jacket all the way to her throat. But now, even having done all that, she was still frozen to the core of her bones. They had already made use of all the clothes they had. If that was still not enough for the upcoming days to come...

It was night. The sky was inky black, studded with a sprinkle of stars. The woods were quiet, except for the distant hoots of an owl and the slight slither of rustling leaves. Branches arced overhead in a kind of eerie elegance, dancers cloaked in shades of night. Long, supple limbs extended with an unearthly grace, silhouettes dark against the night skies.

Chills rippled through Thalia's body, not just because of the cold. Being here, camping out in these woods, it made it much more real. She was no longer. She was running away, _running away_, hiding out and camping in forests. Just the idea of it sent a thrill arcing through her. She was no longer at "home", hiding in a tiny, airtight broom closet of her mother's gargantuan penthouse, terrified of the deathwatch thuds of Penelope Grace's heels and the drunken yells of the intoxicated woman she refused to call mother. She was out in the wild, independent and free. _Free_. The prospect both amazed and terrified her.

She heard a rustle from behind her. A branch snapped from somewhere close by. She tensed, hairs rising on the back of her neck. Monsters? They had been attacked repeatedly over the past weeks; demons of any shape and size imaginable lunged out of the most innocuous shrubs to try to tear them apart. Here, unguarded in the woods, they might be safe from mortal police, but they certainly were not invulnerable to snake-bodied demons.

Thalia's fist closed around the hilt of her dagger.

Then a figure stepped out from behind the elm. Tousled air that shone almost silver in the moonlight, high proud cheekbones, and eyes that sparkled with the thrill of wildness and mischief.

Thalia found her grip slacken. It was only him.

Luke.

Her companion.

She kept her gaze on him as he folded his legs and sat down beside her. The warmth of his shoulder pressed against hers. His knee brushed against her thigh.

"Couldn't sleep too?" she whispered. Her eyelids fluttered as the warm roughness of his hand gently grazed hers.

"Yeah."

The word was released like a feather, caressing her cheek gently and blending into the night. His breath tickled the tip of her ear. She shivered again.

She felt him shift slightly, turning his head upwards to gaze into the skies above.

"The sky," he breathed. "Pretty nice, huh?"

Thalia tilted her head. She let it fall against the tree trunk, and stared up into the heavens.

The night was cloudless. The moon hung low, swan-like and full above them, bathing the bare branches and curling leaves in a soft, silver sheen. The sky was so black, so vast and endless, Thalia could drown in its depths. A sheen of sparkling stars glittered above, gentle twinkles complementing the immanent moon to silver perfection.

Thalia took in a breath.

"I've never seen stars like these before. And the moon... Wow."

She tilted her head to look at him.

His face, silvered in moonlight, looked almost ethereal. Thalia found herself carefully studying his profile: the slope of his forehead, the slightly upturned nose, the regal curve of his high cheekbones. She admired his unruly hair, the mop of gorgeous blonde that no amount of anything could tame. She studied the proud curve of his hunched shoulders, the silhouette of muscular arms, long, calloused fingers that splayed, almost delicately, on his leg. He was only fourteen, but he looked much older. A man, no longer a boy.

Luke Castellan. Her Luke.

He caught her looking.

"What're you staring at?"

Heat rose from the base of Thalia's neck right to her cheeks. She hoped it was too dark for him to see her blush. She snapped her gaze away, furious at herself at being caught. Again.

"Nothing."

She could almost feel his smirk searing the skin of her exposed neck.

"Oh really?"

"Shut up already, Castellan."

As Thalia rolled her head back again, she thought she saw him smile.

She stared back into the heavens.

Her gaze roved across the skies, drinking in everything almost hungrily, a thirsty child reaching for his milk bottle. The moon, crystallized and pure, suspended with haunting grace in the soft air. She found herself opening her eyes wide, as wide as she could, desperately trying to capture the entire splendor of it in her eyes. A silver orb, queen of the heavens. So full, round as rising hope. So bright, it could guide lost hunters home through the woods. So beautiful, it took Thalia's breath away.

A sigh escaped her lips. How had she lived her miserable twelve years, yet never known about something so wondrous?

Luke's hand slipped into hers.

Any protest Thalia might have made was lost in her throat as the firm heat of his large palms enveloped her small, icy ones. Warmth returned to her body. A small smile fluttered over her lips. He always had what she needed.

It had always struck Thalia how Luke was never cold. He was not cold in that thunderstorm in Virginia, even as Thalia and Annabeth huddled together, shivering and whimpering. His limbs were not numb after hiking through that patch of woods in Maine in just a shirt and trousers. He was always, so reassuringly, warm. Always, so reassuring there.

Thalia drank in the stars, diamonds so intricately etched into the canvas of the skies. She spotted constellations that she had never truly believed existed; patterns that leaped out at her with every sweep. It was not until now did she truly understand what she was missing, living in the chaos of urban city: the wonders of the galaxies, vast and unexplorable, wonderstriking to behold...

Stories came back to Thalia. Andromeda and Perseus, love forged out of pain; The hunter Orion, dashing across the sky, bow raised, chin high; Hydrokhoos, cup bearer to Zeus. She had never before felt so close to them, so reassured.

Family was not her mother's drunken yells or her father's indifferent absence. Family was not a cold mansion she got lost in, or expensive toys she never wanted. Family was here, watching myths unfold through the heavens like the stories of her own life, feeling the warmth of the hand of the one she loved melting into her own body.

For the first time, Thalia Grace was at home.

"They're beautiful."

The words slipped from her mouth, warm and soft, a pillow.

She turned to look at Luke, and found him already gazing at her? His head tilted toward hers. In the radiance of the moon, his eyes looked like pools of liquid sapphire, swirling with melting diamonds.

"_You're_ beautiful."

His voice was low, hoarse even.

He kissed her.

Fireworks exploded in Thalia's head, showers of sparks blossoming in slow motion into the heavens to join the stars. Happy endings soared through Thalia's mind. She pictured growing up on the run, alive and free. She pictured her wedding: the black punk garb she would wear instead of a gossamer dress; Annabeth running along beside her, blonde hair fluttering as she threw flowers into the air; the sapphire-eyes man waiting for her at the other end of the room. She pictured a new constellation blazing through the night sky: her, Luke and Annabeth, shining forever in the stars.

Overhead, the moon glimmered and the stars twinkled. And Thalia Grace believed that happy endings were not that impossible, after all.

**xXx**

**How was it? Good? Bad? Really good? Really bad? Please tell me! **


	2. Fogged Moon

**Part 2: Fogged Moon**

**Ok, so this is in Thalia's point of view, at the time when she's a pine tree. There are a lot of fics in Luke's perspective when Thalia became a tree, and in Thalia's perspective when she woke up. I figured there were too little of these fics - in Thalia's perspective when she was a tree - around. Please read and review! **

**I didn't really know what to make of the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata. It was a little less emotional than the first and third, and seemed a little uncertain. So, here it is!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned PJO, I'll probably die of happiness. So seeing as I'm still perfectly alive...**

* * *

She blinked.

Something shone blue overhead, like a forget-me-not canvas of sky on a cloudless day. Then there was green; little patches of grass melting into lawns; distant fields smelling of those little red fruits... What were they called again? Oh yes, strawberries. Those bunches of tiny berries that bathed in the sunlight were called strawberries. There were buildings too. Roofs and blended colours poked above the grass, vague and fuzzy. She could make out something red... No, blue. Silver, even, and gold.

She stretched upward, feeling the sunlight caress her branches and leaves. She reached up to embrace it, basking in the warmth and glow that filled her with a sort of calm and content. She stood tall and firm, the throb of life beating through her with every breath. She was contentedly, blissfully alive.

_Alive_.

Something strange tingled at the back of her mind, something that told her that this shouldn't be. Doubt flickered through her.

_Monsters. Pouring rain. Dying._

She shook herself. She was just thinking too much. She wasn't dying. She was alive and well on this little hilltop.

She heard the distant murmur of voices and the faraway sounds of people laughing from downhill. When she tried, she even saw the indistinct figures of them walking about, weaving between the cluster of roofs that peeked above the grass, tiny and blur in the background.

She wondered where she was. Well, this wasn't a bad place, after all. Flowers bloomed at her roots. A gentle breeze played through her leaves like music. But how had she ended up here? She tried to think. Where had she been before this? Where on earth _was _this place? But try as she might, she could not remember. All that remained was a distant grey blur of fogged images that did not make sense to her: something that might have been... been black asphalt zipping by and... a full moon that... hung silver above her and... And...

Blue eyes.

She almost gasped. She grasped at the memory, trying desperately to hold on to it, cling on to its frayed edges. She did not know how, but she was sure it was something important. She wanted to know. She _needed _to know.

But just as she thought she could form a coherent thought, the memory slipped away as quickly as it had come.

She sighed, disappointed.

_Well_, she thought, _someday, I will figure it out_.

Sunset dyed the sky in a rueful orange, staining the clouds before slipping beneath the horizon. Soon, evening fell. Night closed in on the little hill like a blanket that fell over it, gently wrapping it in its little cocoon. Crickets chirped. Bugs hummed and a chorus of frogs croaked at the lake. The sky was inky and dark.

_Blue eyes_, she thought. _Crystalline and true, a lifeline she clung onto._

She needed to find out.

* * *

She did not see him coming toward her until he was right before her: the boy making his way up the hill. His outline was pale against the blue-black sky. She could see the blurred silhouette of hunched shoulders and long, almost pained footsteps. Something shone pale and silver in the moonlight - his hair, perhaps.

She tried to make out his face, yet through the dark, it was impossible. All she could see was the paleness of his skin in the faint light of the stars, and the white-blonde gleam of his hair.

She watched as he approached her, staring up at her leaves. He drew closer, reaching out his arms as though to embrace her. He pressed his hands into her trunk. She could feel his movements, slow and shaky, almost excruciating. His hands quivered, uncertain and disbelieving. She felt them against her, pressing with almost a violent need, like a drowning man reaching for land. Then, as fast as he had come, he snapped his hands away as though scorched.

He hovered uncertainly before her, like a bewildered insect, then crouched down and slowly ran his fingers across her roots and the base of her trunk, as though drinking her in with every second, feeling everything.

And then he spoke. His voice was rough and hollow, filled with pain.

"You're... You're... You're really..."

She did not understand what he was saying, yet she could feel the pain and disbelief in him, swirling in a black vortex of agony. He was _tortured _from within. By what? She did not know.

Her heart broke. What had caused him to be like this?

"Oh, Thalia," he whispered.

She could taste the pain, the confusion squeezed out of him like bitter, slow-acting poison.

"Thalia. Thalia. Thalia..."

_Thalia_. The name struck a chord in the back of her mind, yet it was faint, as though only heard from across an ocean. It was something that she was certain she should know, yet didn't; and insistent tingle at the back of her mind. The harder she tried to put her finger on it, the swifter it evaded her. What was Thalia? A name. It was someone's name. She racked her brain, yet came up with nothing this time. Who was Thalia? Who was this boy? And whose were those blue eyes that haunted her thoughts... Blue, blue eyes that looked like melting sapphires in the firelight...

She did not know.

How she wished she did.

* * *

Days flowed past, stretching into weeks and months. Soon, time no longer mattered. The sun rose and set in the same rhythmic routine for her. The moon delicately thinned into just a small streak of silver, then slowly expanded into its full, rounded glory. It was calm on the top of the hill, nothing but sunlight warmth and moon radiance and distant voices from downhill.

Yet through the calm and predictable peace, something constantly nagged at the back of her mind, a small insistent voice whispering urgently everyday so that she could never be at peace.

Thalia. Blue eyes. And those distorted images that came to her, of running down icy pavements and deserted roads, hiding among trees, and the indistinct form of a little girl with hair the colour of sunlight trailing after her.

They were connected somehow, she was sure, to form something important, but she just could not figure it out. It was confusing and so frustrating, she wanted to scream. It was as though someone had placed a square of black right in the centre of her memories, preventing her from knowing even about herself.

And who was that silver-blonde boy who came to her every night?

Almost inadvertently, she found herself looking forward to his visits. As the moon rose every night, she would start to expect him, gazing across the meadows to find the small shape of him moving up the hill. There he would be, striding up the gentle slope toward her, and she would watch him, her eyes never leaving him as he came to her. She liked it so much better when he was there. Somehow, nights were always warmer with him beside her.

She was always disappointed when he didn't come.

Sometimes, he would merely sit, leaning against her. Together, they would watch the shades of night play past in peaceful silence. Other times, his hands would run down her trunk, caressing her leaves, as though feverishly trying to take her all in. Again and again, he would repeat that name: _Thalia, Thalia, Thalia._

She would try hard, oh, so hard, to make out his face, yet it was always too dark, her vision too blurred to see anything clear.

All she could do was just stand there and absorb his presence beside her that kept her from loneliness.

Well, maybe that was good enough.

Sometimes, he would leave a few hours later, when the moon was high and the stars glittered above. Those always left her disappointed. She wished he could stay. Other times, he would stay until it was dawn, when the faint orange smudge appeared on the horizon. Then he would stand, reluctantly brushing away the leaves on his clothes, and head back down into the valley.

She would watch him go, following his every step with her gaze until the vague shadow of him melted into the distance.

She wished he could stay longer.

* * *

_Luke_.

The name was on everyone's lips.

_Luke. Luke. Luke_.

It buzzed through the people downhill. It rippled through the voices of nearby tree spirits.

Luke.

It bothered her, even more than all the other things she had been preoccupied with. She did not recognize this name, but like _Thalia_, she was sure she knew it. Somewhere inside her, buried deep and frustratingly irretrievable, she knew lay the knowledge and overflowing memories of who this name belonged to.

Yet she just could not remember.

It was just so frustrating! Why could she not recall? Why must her vision be so blurred? Why could she just not simply enjoy the peace of the hilltop? _Why?_

Vague images formed in her mind, though they did nothing but increase her confusion. _A rainy day. A triumphant laugh ringing through the air. A twenty-dollar bill held proudly aloft. The tiny figure of a little blonde girl beside her._

What did these all mean?

_Luke_.

She found herself thinking of it so much it became an obsession.

_Luke. Thalia. Thalia. Luke_.

* * *

The sky was soft and inky, as though if she reached out, she would be able to touch its wavering edges. There might be stars; she did not know. Little glimmers of tiny lights above darted in and out of her focus. She could see the moon, fogged and smudged against the dark sky.

The night was quiet. She stared up into the watery moon, her mind wandering.

She had not seen the silver-blonde-haired boy for a while now. She wished he would visit her again. He had always come. Why had he stopped? Where had he gone to? Did he not care about her anymore? She tried to recall his last visits. He had seemed different; more agitated perhaps, even angry. He had spoken a lot; words she could not understand tumbling out of his mouth, fast and furious, like showers of pebbles she could not pick up.

_I'll make them pay_, he had repeated over and over again. _Don't worry_.

What did he mean? She was not worried about anything in particular. She just wanted to see him again. Was that too much to ask?

Her gaze roved across the skies, before sliding down the valley and the opposite side of the sleeping hill.

Then she gasped. The world seemed to stop.

Because -

Because -

There he was.

His hair gleamed in the starlight, and it struck he how different he looked. Older, perhaps, and stronger. Her heart swelled. He was here, back for her.

Then she noticed that he held something in his hand; something long and silvery, glinting in the foggy light of the moon. A sword, perhaps? He had never carried it before. What was he going to do with it? Nervousness crept into her, fluttering like moths. He wouldn't hurt her, would he?

The moon shone, half hidden in cloud. She could see him better now, yet his face was still hidden in layers of shadow. Frustration coursed through her. Why could she not see clearly for once? At that moment, she would give anything, anything to just have a proper look at the beautiful mystery who came to her.

Then the moon slid out from behind the cloud. Moonlight streamed down, silver and bright. It illuminated the sleeping grass before her, pouring across the meadows. It caught the reflective edge of the boy's sword and almost delicately, reflected upward.

The light, pale and white, fell on his face, bathing it in silver.

Her heart seemed to stop. Everything froze over. She could not breathe. She could not speak. At that moment, nothing else mattered as she stared into his eyes.

Eyes that shone the bright, electric blue that had haunted her thoughts for so, so long.

* * *

Just like that, it all hit her.

She gasped as the flood of memories and images washed over her like a tidelwave.

_Luke_... Luke was this boy, the one right in front of her, the one who came to keep her company every night, the one with the blue eyes. Luke, the one who had single-handedly defended her against legions of hellhounds. Luke, who had been there every time she needed someone. Luke, her friend, her companion, her _love_. Luke and that little blonde girl Annabeth, for whom she had given her life for - and became this... this _tree_.

_Thalia_... Her heart fluttered. Thalia had been her. Punk-garb-wearing, lightning-bolt-throwing _her_.

Luke and Thalia. Thalia and Luke.

She wanted to cry out to him. _Luke_, she desperately wanted to scream. _You came! You came back to me!_

Yet trapped in the husk of the silent tree, she could not make a sound. She struggled, fighting to speak, to simply move, yet it was like trying to move a boulder. How had she ever been at peace with this form? She could only watch as he stood there, staring into her with those startling blue eyes, pools of liquid sapphire and melting diamonds gazing into her.

But something was wrong. She sensed it before actually seeing what it was.

He had cut his hair, so it was no longer that beautiful windswept mob that swept over his head, but instead an angular, unfamiliar style that just wasn't him. his clothes had changed too; no longer the shorts and sandals of the scruffy boy she loved, but long trousers and a clean shirt. A long, pale scar ran down one side of his face. It looked almost unearthly, jagged and cold in the moonlight. It didn't belong on his face. Chills tingled down her spine. Luke had never had such a scar. Surely it was just a trick of her fogged vision? Luke's face was smooth, proud and handsome, unmarked and scar-less... wasn't it?

Then he spoke to her, and his voice brought her to a whole new level of reality.

"I'm sorry, Thalia."

She felt the heat of his palm against her trunk again. Her heart fluttered.

"I'm doing this for you. You'll understand."

His voice was low, full of emotion. It was not until then did she realize how much she wanted to hear it again. This was why she had been so lonely as this tree. This was why she had, without fully understanding herself, yearned so much for his visits. This was what it was meant to be. Luke and Thalia. Thalia and Luke.

But... what had he meant? _I'm sorry. I'm doing this for you._ What was he going to do?

As if in slow motion, he raised his sword.

Her befuddled mind reeled. What was going on? What -

He drew his sword back. She could see his muscles working as he pulled the weapon back to strike, slowly... slowly...

No! What was he- he wouldn't - he would never -

She could not move. She could not speak. She was frozen in time and space, watching, horror-struck as the weapon was raised. This was just a nightmare, was it not? This was no reality. She would wake up from this terrible dream and they would still be on the run, hiding out in darkened woods...

The poisoned blade pierced into her.

* * *

Pain.

Terrible, blinding, searing pain.

Her body felt like it was dissolving, torn apart over and over again. White hot knives pierced every inch of her skin. Her head was going to burst with the agony. Every nerve in her body screamed in torment. Her vision darkened. Her thoughts swirled into a black vortex of chaos. _Make the pain stop_, she wanted to scream. _Make it go away. __Please!_

_Luke. _The thought flashed through her like a knife, filling her being with horror. A new kind of torture started inside her, right from where her heart should be. Luke. Why had he done this? Why had he... had he... _stabbed her_? She had loved him! He had _promised! _He promised he wouldn't hurt her! He...

The pain died a little, dimming to a dull ache that racked her body. Her vision was dissolving into blackness. She could feel her mind crumble, her thoughts and memories fading into the black, agonized background. Chaos filled her in a amalgam of swirling, dimming colours. She felt herself sinking, dissolving, wiped away. Luke... He... Who was Luke? She could not recall. Who was _she_? She did not care anymore.

She was dying, and that was all she knew.

Overhead, the moon glimmered and the stars twinkled. And Thalia Grace was in pain, fading into poisoned sickness.

* * *

Thalia awoke on a grassy hilltop. She lay there for a while, not moving. She did not have the strength. Her body throbbed with a dull ache. She felt as though if she tried to stand, she would just collapse, face-first back onto the ground. Her mind spun in slow, disoriented circles.

She heard footsteps; voices calling out in a babble of sound. A bubble of confusion rose inside her. Weren't they camping out in a patch of quiet woods? _Leave me alone_, she thought groggily. _Go away_. Yet the voices swirled around her, a mixture of confusion, chaos and wonder.

_Luke_, she thought, _Annabeth_.

Her eyelids felt so heavy, she fought against the overwhelming desire to just lie back down and sleep forever. She opened them.

A wash of faces stared back at her, unfamiliar and strange. A boy with green eyes and black hair. A blonde girl with stormy grey eyes. She could not make out the others; just a sea of faces staring at her from above.

She tried to reach for the blonde girl, but her arms were too heavy. _Annabeth_, she wanted to say. _Where_._..?_

She looked to the boy. Disappointment welled up inside her. This wasn't Luke. But Annabeth was here. Where was Luke?

_Luke_. A strange chill rippled through her.

_This hilltop_, she remembered. _Poisoned blade. Dying_.

"Strangest dream," she muttered. "Dying..."

"It's alright," the boy told her, his voice calm. "Who are you?"

His eyes were a startling green. _No, it was wrong! They should be blue, shouldn't they?_

Thalia and Luke. Luke and Thalia.

_"_I am Thalia," she said. "Daughter of Zeus."

* * *

**Reviews make my day! Not my best work, I know, but please tell me how you felt about it!**


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